terracevsterrasseTell them apart

Which to use

“terrace” and “terrasse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,970
“terrace” frequency rank
#5,819
“terrasse” frequency rank
55789
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terrace terrasse
Definition Terrasse, plateforme en dur extendant les fondations d’une maison. Levée de terre artificielle en plate-forme, ordinairement soutenue par de la maçonnerie.

Where the eye mixes terrace and terrasse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. terrace runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against terrasse's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
terrace
8 ch
terrasse

Why the eye confuses terrace with terrasse

A purely visual mix-up. terrace (\ˈtɛ.ɹəs\) and terrasse (\tɛ.ʁas\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55789, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terrace is recorded at frequency rank #49,970, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈtɛ.ɹəs\. terrasse is at rank #5,819, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛ.ʁas\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 55789, this pair ranks #125,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of terrace vs terrasse

Shared letters: aert. Private to "terrace": c. Private to "terrasse": s.

"terrace" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "terrasse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terraceetrrace · terace · terarce · terracce · terraec · terrcae · trerace · tterrace
  • terrasseetrrasse · terarsse · terasse · terrase · terrases · terrsase · trerasse · tterrasse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "terrace" and "terrasse" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈtɛ.ɹəs\ versus \tɛ.ʁas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "terrace" or "terrasse"?
"terrasse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,819 in our French list, against #49,970 for "terrace". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "terrace" and "terrasse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terrace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "terrasse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #125,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terrace" and "terrasse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terrace vs terrine". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #125,237 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list